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Monday, March 10, 2014

MONDAY SCRIPTURE (GENESIS 3:1-13)

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Genesis 3:1-13 (ESV)
Satan is a distorter of God's Word and the tempter of man. From this passage we can see his scheme. It is the same trick he has been doing all throughout history.

First Satan will distract you from the truth of God's Word. "Did god actually say?" He knows that salvation and life come from the mouth of God, so he puts that seed of doubt in the minds of people. We see this same thing occur today. The authority of God's Word is constantly questioned. The secular world doesn't want to believe what is written in the Bible, so it sows doubt to its accuracy and inerrancy.

Yet Satan is satisfied with attacks coming only from the world, but he has whispered these same doubts into the Church. One only has to read Church history to see that false doctrines continue to creep their way in. Paul had to deal with the Judaizers. John had to deal with the Docetist. Athanasius fought off Arianism. The Reformers battled for Sola Scriptura. Today, we deal with the likes of Prosperity pushers and Emergent heresies.

Yet if the attack on God's Word doesn't work, Satan will begin to tempt you. "Your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God." He urges you into your basic sinful desire, a reliance upon yourself instead of upon God. Being born into sin, we continually disobey God's commands and find ourselves utterly depraved.

As much as we try, we cannot run away from our sin. We cannot hide our nakedness from God. We will put the blame on others, but deep down we know we have evil inside of us. What a wretched people we have become. God knows the depth of our hearts and the sin that lies within. We cannot stand before His judgment, lest we have an advocate who will fight for us. We need a mediator to plead our case.

Jesus is that mediator. He is our advocate. Though He is God of Gods, He became man and lived a sinless life. He was tempted the same as us, but did not falter. Satan tried to twist God's Word in the wilderness, hoping to deceive Jesus as he did to us. Jesus was not fooled. He did not doubt the Scriptures and He did not succumb to temptation. Even as He hung dying on a tree, He did not give in. He humbled Himself for our sake. He paid the penalty four ours sins on the cross. Three days later He rose from the dead.

Put your faith in Jesus. Do not doubt God's Word any longer. Trust in the only one who can rescue your soul from eternal damnation. Repent from your sins and believe this good news. Jesus died for your sins. He now sits at the right hand of the Father as an advocate for His people. Those who have faith in Him can withstand any accusation, because Jesus' blood covers over their sins. There can be no better news than this!

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